We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jocelyn Sfetcu a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jocelyn, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew I wanted to be a makeup artist since high school. To be honest, I always wanted to be involved in film and TV somehow. From a young age I would watch fantasy and action movies, and loved the creatures and special effects, and when I learned that there were people who actually made fantasy a reality, I knew I wanted that to be me. I started practicing fun makeup looks at home, I would constantly watch tutorials and videos because it was something I wanted to improve. Even as a teenage I was doing my fellow classmates prom makeup.

Once I had graduated college, the first thing I did was save nearly every penny I made to go straight to makeup school, and it has been my career ever since.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a Los Angeles based makeup artist, and a South Bay native. I first studied Criminology from the University of California, Irvine, where I got my bachelor’s degree in 2021. I then went on to attend Cinema Makeup School in Los Angeles, where I graduated in 2023, studying both beauty and special effects.

I have always had a passion for fantasy and fiction, and I love being able bring that to life. I have experience with practical application of both special effects and beauty, as well as shop work. I also love airbrush makeup, body painting with fun colors and an avant garde style is definitely some of my favorite work to do.

I also love people, and my clients comfort in my chair is my number one priority. I enjoy working on set, and being able to interact with people.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part for me is the final product. I love when I can see the culmination of my hard work, and I really enjoy the payoff. For example, if I see my work in a film or video, even just as one crew member on a set, I love knowing that my art was able to connect with people. I love playing a hand in an overall final product, and I think that feeling can be incredibly motivating.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

Genuinely, it is to pay artists what they’re worth and what they’re asking for. I think we live in a world of wanting quick results in the shortest amount of time possible with as little cost as possible, overproducing things that may not be of the best quality, leading to things like AI being used as a replacement of human artists. Artists WANT to create, it is a passion that drives them, but at the end of the day, we are all human, and we need to survive. Appreciating the work that artists do, and paying them fairly, will insure that they can keep making more art. Art and creating is a wonderful way to connect with each other, and I think it is important to make sure it keeps thriving.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.joces.art
• Instagram: @spiderjoce
• Twitter: @spiderjoce
• Other: imdb: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm13378607/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_0_nm_1_q_jocelyn%2520sfetcu
  tiktok: @spiderjoce

Image Credits

stills from Ornamental Oriental Film (2024) and Role Play the Musical (2024)